The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has delayed voting on a proposed 362-page ordinance that aims to make significant changes to the city code. The ordinance, which was proposed by Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, is an effort to clean up the city code, which has over 16 million words, according to the city attorney’s office.

Concerns Over Broad Scope

Several supervisors, including Angela Calvillo, the board clerk, raised concerns that the proposal was too broad and that they did not fully understand what was being changed. Calvillo pointed out that the legislative digest summarizing the proposed changes did not mention every change in the ordinance, and in some cases, she and her staff had trouble identifying exactly what the ordinance was changing.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar also expressed concerns, stating that she had to use artificial intelligence to help her understand the changes. While she agreed with the spirit of the law, she believed that some changes deserved scrutiny. For example, she questioned whether the city still needed to keep track of whether women are being paid the same as men.

Proposed Changes

The proposed ordinance would remove around 150 sections of the city code, many of which are redundant, and modify a few dozen others. The changes are intended to eliminate or reduce reporting requirements, which are often obsolete or unnecessary. For instance, the city code currently requires the director of public works to produce a report every other year about pedestal zones for newspaper racks, which are no longer in use.

The city attorney’s office used AI tools to identify and analyze redundancies in the city code, which were then manually reviewed by city attorney staff. The proposed changes are intended to simplify the city code and reduce the administrative burden on city departments.

The supervisors have postponed the vote until July 14, allowing for more time to review and discuss the proposed changes. Melgar welcomed the delay, stating that the legislative branch has a responsibility to ensure that the public understands what they are doing.

Original reporting: Mission Local — read the source article.